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Grilled Oysters
Partially dry large oysters on a cloth and either dip them in melted butter and then in seasoned crumbs or leave them plain. If you haven't got a close wired oyster grill, lay them within a handy double-sided wire bread toaster. Broil on both sides and serve on toast. The oyster liquor can be heated, seasoned, and poured over.
But a more delectable way is to leave the bivalves in their shells, scrub them clean, and lay them on the grill, deep shell down. When they peep open they are done. As you remove each top shell carefully, trying not to burn your fingers, put a bit of butter on the oyster and sprinkle him with pepper.
Clams may be prepared in the same manner, but they're not as tasty. 18 OYSTERS
A campfire or backyard-grill treatment of oysters that works two ways: shucked and breaded over the fire, or roasted whole in the shell until they gape. The second method is the one worth your charcoal.
- The hinge: pull them the moment they openAn oyster is done when the shell first parts, which over a hot bed of coals takes roughly 3 to 6 minutes depending on size and shell thickness. Left on, the meat shrinks and turns to rubber and the liquor boils away.
- Deep shell downSetting the cupped half against the grate holds the liquor, which is most of the seasoning. Level the shells against the bars, or steady them on a bed of coarse rock salt in a foil tray so they do not tip and drain.
- FireDirect heat, coals ashed over and hot enough that you can hold a hand five inches above the grate for two seconds. A gas grill on high with the lid down works for the in-shell method.
- The wire bread toasterA hinged double wire rack of the kind used for toasting bread over a stove top or open fire. A modern hinged fish or burger basket does the same job and lets you flip a dozen shucked oysters at once without losing any through the grate.
- Shucked oysters cook faster stillBreaded or plain, they need about 2 minutes a side over direct heat, until the edges ruffle. Pat them properly dry first or the crumb coating will slide off.
- Seasoned crumbsProbably dry white breadcrumbs with salt and pepper; some period recipes also call for a little cayenne or mace. Panko browns faster and crisper if you prefer it.
- Buying and handlingUse live oysters with tightly closed shells, kept cold and cupped side down, and cook them the day you buy them. Any that stay shut after the rest have opened can be pried, but discard any that smell off or whose shell was already gaping and would not close when tapped.
- YieldThe original gives 18 oysters. Six to eight oysters make a first course, a dozen a light main; the recipe scales to whatever the grate holds.
Roasting oysters in their own shells over an open fire is about as old as oyster eating on the Atlantic coast, and predates the cookbook by a long way: shell middens along the Chesapeake and the Carolina and New England shores attest to oyster eating on a large scale, though the precise cooking method has to be inferred rather than read off the evidence. The communal oyster roast survived into the twentieth century as a shore-party institution. The improvised gear here is telling about the period kitchen: a "close wired oyster grill" appears to have been a purpose-made hinged rack for the job, and the writer assumes a reader who has a wire bread toaster hanging by the range to press into service instead. The aside that clams "are not as tasty" is a matter of taste rather than fact.